U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,860, issued Jan. 26, 1976, U.S. Pat. No. 4,012,519, issued Mar. 15, 1977, U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,323, issued Aug. 15, 1978 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,938, issued Feb. 27, 1979, all to David Cheong King Chan, disclose the use of a large class of 3-(N-acyl-N-arylamino)lactones and 3-(N-acyl-N-arylamino) lactams as protectant fungicides.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,108, issued July 5, 1977, to H. Moser, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,648, issued May 24, 1977 to H. Moser, disclose the use of N-(methoxycarbonylethyl)-N-haloacetyl-anilines as preventive and curative fungicides.
German Patent Publication Nos. 2,643,403 and 2,643,445, published Apr. 7, 1977, disclose the use of N-(alkylthio-carbonylethyl)acetanilides for controlling fungi, particularly those of the class Phycomycetes.
Netherlands Patent Publication No. 152,849, published Apr. 15, 1977, discloses the use of N-(alkoxymethyl)acetanilides as fungicides.
Belgian Pat. No. 867,556, published Nov. 27, 1978, discloses 3-(N-cyclopropylcarbonyl-N-arylamino)-gamma-butyrolactones.
Belgian Pat. No. 863,615, published Aug. 3, 1978, discloses fungicidal 3-(N-acyl-N-arylamino)-gamma-butyrolactones.
In the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,860, I disclose 3-(N-acyl-N-arylamino)lactones and lactams represented by the Formula (I): ##STR1## wherein Ar is phenyl or phenyl substituted with 1 to 3 of the same or different substituents selected from fluoro, chloro, bromo, alkyl of 1 to 4 carbon atoms, alkoxy of 1 to 4 carbon atoms or nitro; R.sup.1 is alkyl of 1 to 6 carbon atoms, etc.; R.sup.2 is hydrogen or alkyl of 1 to 6 carbon atoms; Y is oxygen or N--R.sup.2 ; and n is 1 or 2.
In the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,323, I disclose that compounds of Formula (I), wherein R.sup.1 is halomethyl, Y is oxygen and Ar is 2,6-dialkylphenyl, are particularly preferred for their high activity for eradicating and curing established fungal infections, particularly for downy mildew infection of grapevines and late blight infection of tomatoes.
Recently it has been found that subsequent generations of the fungi producing Grape Downy Mildew disease which have been treated with the fungicide most commonly used to control this disease (i.e., N-methoxyacetyl-N-(1-methoxycarbonylethyl)-2,6-dimethylaniline) are appearing to develop resistance to this fungicide. Further, it appears that this acquired resistance also increases the resistance of such fungi to a number of the newer aniline derivative fungicides. If this resistance becomes widespread, it will present considerable problems to the control of this disease.